James was the half brother of Jesus as was his other brothers. Why? Because Jesus was conceived by God and Mary was a virgin. Joseph was from the Judea tribe. Jesus was adopted by Joseph’s family, ultimately because Jesus was not of Joseph’s seed.
Now when God created man, time had to be broken in order to achieve that. Where and when did Time become a construct to which today is defined?
There are about 60 books (or rather scrolls) in the “New Testament” alone which eventually made into modern times. And they often contradict each other. The Ethiopians, who accepted the teachings of Jesus long before Europeans became civilized, have far more books.
Is it that important to determine which prophet is more right than others and closer to God and eternal truth?
Who is to say which branch of Christianity is more right regarding Jesus, his family, and disciples. James, a brother of Jesus, had controversies with some of the disciples, especially with Paul.
What difference does it make whether Jesus was son of God or a wise prophet who taught the truth?
It makes all the difference! Without proclaiming that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead and was the son of God, there would be no Christianity.
Exactly my point. Is it that crucial to preserve organized Christianity or Islam or Buddhism for that matter?
What about God, Creator or Great Spirit? Isn’t it the core issue?
Depends on who you ask. Some say they are the same others will defer to Native speak without acknowledging Christianity altogether.
I may have to take it back.
There were prophets in the early days of Judea/Israel who advocated mass murder and genocide.
These prophets were propesying for some nasty, tribal god who gets triggered easily. However, later prophets spoke for (or “channeled” in New Age speak) more universal, loving God / Creator. Isaiah II and Isaih III, for example. No longer the same deity. The Pharisees have stuck to the early version of god and that’s where they are today. (It is not antisemitic to point it out because they themselves admit that today’s Judaism is Pharisee teaching)
Plato who lived 400 years before Jesus also spoke of loving Creator God. We today don’t use the terms “philosophy” and “philosopher” (He coined them) in the same way as he did.
This is quite remarkable!
Probably the wrong forum, but I’ll put it here anyway.
It’s happening now, just like Martin Luther warned Christians centuries ago.
The debate on what Jesus actually looked is one that is very telling, especially on social media. For myself, I think this representation is probably closer to the truth considering the region in which Jesus came from and what others have said about Jesus and what he looked like.
I don’t like it.
He looks like a Pakistani in the drawing.
Palestinians in general are not that dark.
One of Jacob’s sons (Yehuda, I think) is described as having dark eyes. This means other sons had eyes of a lighter color (like gray or light brown). I met many Palestinians with green and blue eyes.
The facial features were closer to what the people of the region looked like according to the article I posted back then. It also suggests that he was only 5’5 and indicative of the average height of men of that era. He certainly wasn’t white with blue eyes as some pictures of him depict.
Drawing on textual and archaeological sources, Taylor suggests that Jesus was around 5’5″ tall — the average height seen in male skeletons from the same time and place.
I’m going from the view-point that Jesus and his family as well as his original followers were of the Levantine race (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and western Jordan today). Luke could be an exception because he was more likely to be Greek.
Needless to say, European drawings of Jesus depict him as European-looking, while in Africa, he was black. Japanese Christians in the 16th century depicted him as a Japanese wearing Japanese clothes.
Which is proof it doesn’t matter what Jesus looked like because he appealed to all races on the planet, so much so there is a version of him everywhere.
I happened across this… and I thought it worth being heard.
Who wrote the Bible?
Are we being scammed by entities pretending to be God?
I was fortunate enough to have seen Mr Gregory speak back when I was in college. He certainly commanded an audience like no other. When leaving that night I came away with more knowledge of certain things than what took me a life time to learn up until that point in my life. He changed my perspective on things forever and I remain grateful to this day for having experienced his seminar!
We know who wrote the Bible! Every book has an author and its well documented who those people were. The only book in which the author is unknown is the book of Hebrews. Some say it was Paul while some scholars argue that it might have been Barnabas but that is a speculative debate to this day. The Bible is the best selling book to this day. The only other book that comes close is the Lord of the Rings.
I don’t know how reliable this info / view is.
Many religious Joos believe the first Five Books (Pentateuch) were written by Moses, which certainly isn’t true because the last book talks about his death. He never set foot on the Holy Land.
One rabbi (I forgot which one) said Moses was punished by God for murdering Israelites during the wandering in Sinai.
In any case, many versions of texts and scrolls of the Old and New Testament existed which were later messed with for various reasons. Even Jeremiah complains of the scribes (in Jerusalem) doing the editing work, which he termed “the lying pen of the scribes.”
Jeremiah 8:8-11
NIV
How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped.
